Nina the Cat Gets a Home!

After 468 days living at the Prairie’s Edge Humane Society (PEHS) and waiting for a home, our beloved cat Nina, with her beautiful tortoiseshell/butterscotch silky coat, finally went to her forever home this past week!  Congratulations on your adoption Nina, it’s been a long time coming.

Why was Nina at the PEHS shelter so long?  It's simple...Nina was with us so long because people typically do not adopt an older animal. Nina is 13 years old.  She was 12 when she was surrendered to us because the home she had been living in was occupied by too many animals and they could no longer care for all of them.   Nina had lived in her home for 12 years prior to coming to PEHS.  No animal should be waiting at the shelter long enough to celebrate another birthday, but unfortunately this was the case for Nina.  As a one month stay turned into a six month stay, then over a year, each day Nina waited for someone to give her a home to share her unconditional love and live out her golden years and we all waited with her.  The staff and volunteers at the PEHS shelter hoped and prayed every day that it would be the day Nina got adopted.  Many potential adopters would visit Nina but her age always concerned them and they would eventually adopt a younger cat.  Even though Nina is a senior, she is very healthy and does not show her age in her daily activities. 

Never underestimate the amount of love and affection Nina received while living at PEHS. She was very much loved, cared for and shown a lot of extra TLC because of her situation. She was simply spoiled by everyone on a daily basis and that’s ok because Nina deserved to be spoiled.  Nina waited each day for the staff to let her have the run of the shelter.  When the staff would arrive, she would run to the door of the cat colony and wait to be let out.  She would make her rounds through the lobby, exam room and the laundry room checking out who was around that particular day and knowing exactly which staff members were the most generous with the treats.  Ultimately making her way to the office where she would march in and announce her arrival, letting whoever was in the office know she was present and waiting for her treats.  Nina is very vocal when it comes to wanting treats.  If you were the person sitting in the office you better stop whatever you were doing and accommodate Nina’s treat request or you wouldn’t be accomplishing anything until you did as you would be harrassed by her until her request was fulfilled.  Once content after receiving her daily treats, her favorite spot was to lie on top of the printer on Kathy’s desk and look out the window, eventually falling asleep there.  We believe there were two reasons she liked to lay in this particular spot.  One being that the printer allowed her to sit high enough to see out the window as she loved to watch the birds outside and any other activity going on outdoors.  The other reason she probably liked to lay on top of the printer is because when turned on the printer gave off heat, providing a nice warm spot to take a nap.  Unfortunately having an 11 pound cat lay on top of a printer was not very good for the printer, or conducive to printing.  So a special box was placed right next to the printer on the desk, high enough for Nina to see out the window.  It was covered with a soft fleece blanket and topped off with a cozy fleece cat bed made by the mother of a staff member in hopes that Nina would prefer this to laying on top of a hard surface like the printer.  She did and this became her favorite spot to curl up for the majority of the day.  If the office however became too “busy” for Nina’s taste, such as a meeting going on with several people in attendance, or heaven forbid a dog was allowed to hang out in the office, Nina was not always so interested in “sharing” her special place with others, so she could then be found taking a nap in the laundry room on the very top shelf where the cat beds are stored, snuggled up on top of a pile of several beds.  When the office would be closed up for the day, this would annoy Nina as well.  She was very vocal about letting us know she was a bit put out with us when we would wake her from a nap and move her to another one of her beds on another desk in the lobby area so that the office could be closed up.  It was common to hear staff apologizing out loud to this cat while carrying her from one comfy bed to another comfy bed, promising her treats, all the while Nina meowing in disgust for being disturbed during a nap. 

Nina was adopted into a home at one point but unfortunately the other cat in the home was mean to her so she was brought back to PEHS. Her adopter was very upset that it did not work out but it was not fair to either cat to live in a situation where they were stressed by the other cat so Nina came back to the shelter.  These things do happen but we did not give up on Nina. Nina lived with us until she got her own home. Animals do not run out of time at PEHS, they stay until they get a home. We love Nina and we are very happy for her that she now has a home to live out her golden years.  

On Nina's last day at the PEHS shelter the staff noticed that she seemed to be more active and just acting "different" than normal.  Instead of sleeping away the afternoon in her bed in the office, she seemed to be following staff members around the building as if she knew somehow this was her last day with all of these people who had cared for her for over a year.  She seemed to be telling everyone "goodbye".  She also seemed to be harrassing the other cats and kittens in the building as well, which Nina never did, almost taunting them as if to say "It's my turn to go home today and I'm letting everyone know it".  Somehow she sensed this was her day to go to her forever home.  Animals understand and sense more than we realize. 

Congratulations to you Nina, we love you, we will miss you, but we are full of smiles because you now have a home to call your own where you will receive the love you so deserve from your own person! To Nina’s adopter, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for giving a home to a senior animal, you are simply wonderful and you are a hero in our eyes for doing so. Nina’s adopter is retired and mostly homebound. Nina will be a great companion. 

Unfortunately we know that there are many more “Nina’s” who will pass through the doors at PEHS.  There are currently other "senior" cats at the PEHS shelter that are also waiting for homes....please check them out if you are considering adopting a cat, the seniors make wonderful companions!